Liverpool Girl Geeks has joined forces with eight local digital and tech companies to increase awareness of why diversity in the workplace matters and to help create more inclusive working environments.
Through their membership scheme they have asked their partners to co-create a pledge which will progress the diversity and inclusion agenda within their organisations and encourage others within the city region to follow suit.
The main points of the pledge are around recruitment, fairness, representation and community.
It calls for companies to show a commitment to implementing transparent and fair recruitment procedures that encourage inclusivity and diversity by advertising jobs that are flexible where possible and having a diverse recruitment panel.
It asks they ensure all employees receive equal pay for work of equal value and that there is a commitment to having more women on boards and/or senior leadership teams, working towards a 50/50 split at senior level.
Companies who sign the pledge will also commit to publishing diversity data annually and, when organising internal and external events and trainings, to 50/50 gender representation on speaker panels.
“If we as a business and industry are serious about improving the gender balance and tackling the digital skills gap, we need to continue to support organisations like Liverpool Girl Geeks who are making an impact,” said Nick Howe, managing director at Uniform.
“That’s why we have helped to create their members pledge which we think could drive real and lasting change across the sector.”
In the North West only 19 per cent of tech jobs are held by women and there is a widening digital skills gap with many companies within the burgeoning tech sector struggling to find enough talent to fill all of the roles.
Liverpool Girl Geeks was established in 2013 and exists to correct the gender imbalance within tech, with a mission to create a more diverse and balanced workforce.
They do this by providing opportunities for females of all ages through education, training, mentoring and networking.
In 2016 Liverpool Girl Geeks launched a company membership scheme, which was designed to create a business community of local companies who truly care about diversity in the workplace. It enables companies to work closely with one another and share good practice.
The team at Liverpool Girl Geeks provides services to the members to help them tackle some of the issues that they face in recruiting and retaining a diverse workforce.
These include a wide range of activities from profiling role models within the member organisations, providing volunteering opportunities for members of staff and working with members to improve their policies and practices.
The pledge which Liverpool Girl Geeks created in collaboration with their members is a way of formalising what the group have achieved over the past year.
Members have committed to making their workplaces more fair and diverse.
The collective aspires to lead the way in the city region and across the North West by adopting best practices and ensuring that Liverpool becomes known for being the best place to work if you are female.